Xavi Vierge and Andrea Locatelli began the first round of the 2026 FIM Superbike World Championship in earnest with Friday Free Practice at Phillip Island in Australia today.
An additional Pirelli tyre option for the race weekend, differing from the test earlier in the week, meant a new “starting position” for both Pata Maxus Yamaha riders when the pit lane opened this morning for Free Practice 1.
Finishing the day tenth on FP2’s timesheet, Vierge was pleased with the work completed together with his #97 crew and gained confidence from technical changes made to improve the rear grip and stability of his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK. His goal is to find a couple of tenths in outright lap pace, in an effort to qualify on the front two rows of the grid tomorrow.
Locatelli was chasing a big improvement in feeling following a challenging test on Monday and Tuesday, and made positive steps in the right direction. Further work will be completed overnight with the data collected today in optimal warm, sunny conditions, and the #55 rider vows to fight until the end in the opening races of the season.
Saturday on the island begins with Free Practice 3 at 10:00 local time (GMT+11), the first Superpole qualifying of 2026 at 13:00 and then the lights will go out for Race 1 to get underway at 16:00.
FULL FREE PRACTICE RESULTS
Xavi Vierge: 11th – 1’29.806
“It has been a solid start – we’ve been working on the fine tuning for my R1 WorldSBK set-up. We found something that helped me a little bit to keep a good pace and we won quite a lot of confidence with the rear of the bike, so this is very important. We know where we need to improve as well and we worked hard this afternoon to try to find the few tenths of a second that we are missing, because everything is super tight in the middle of the field. With two-tenths, we can be in the first or second row. The small details matter and I think we are working in the right direction.”
Andrea Locatelli: 15th – 1’30.060
“Day One at Phillip Island is done! The goal was to try to get the feeling more and more as I need, after the difficult test. The conditions were a bit different with respect to testing, but we are also trying to improve my feeling on the bike. I am more comfortable now, we are still missing something but I want to keep positive vibes to try to be faster tomorrow and to keep building for this first race weekend. We will work tonight, stay positive and cross the fingers a bit that we can make a good step forward and as always, fight until the end.”
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